Ajmal still part of Adelaide Strikers, but Akmal's contract cut by Sydney Sixers

Source :

Last Updated: Wed, Nov 21, 2012 08:20 hrs

Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal and the Adelaide Strikers will be the chief beneficiaries of the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) decision to allow their players limited participation in the Big Bash League (BBL) after the Sydney Sixers terminated Umar Akmal's contract.

Jamie Cox, the director of cricket for the South Australian association, said Ajmal's re-confirmed availability was a relief after several days of frantic phone-calls trying to keep Pakistan's No. 1 spinner in the picture for the tournament, according to the Daily Times.

"The arrangements work for us at the moment, they work for us better than some of the other sides because we had originally intended for Saeed to be here for the first game anyway," Cox said.

"We're still working on how that works for the latter end of the tournament, but for them to reverse their decision we're very grateful. To have him in our team albeit how brief it turned out to be will be pretty exciting. We're hoping we can free that up for the back-end of the tournament where hopefully we're well and truly alive and challenging for the trophy," Cox said.

"Pakistan are at liberty to put out whatever programme they like and we understand that's how it works with international players, but we're always keen to try and find whether there was an opportunity for him to reconsider and fortunately in this case they have, and we're very grateful. It'll hopefully work very well for us," he added.

The PCB had earlier denied permission for Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Akmal to play in the BBL to ensure their participation in its own local tournament. But, upon Cricket Australia's request, it reconsidered its stand and allowed them to play the initial stages of the tournament. Due to the scheduling, Akmal was found to be available for just the opening game of Sixers' campaign. (ANI)